EgyptAir Flight 804 crash victims include Chad student, Kuwaiti national
A BRITISH man has revealed how he was booked to fly on EgyptAir flight MS804 but a late change of plan meant he never boarded the plane.
A BRITISH man has revealed how he was booked to fly on EgyptAir flight MS804 but a late change of plans meant he never boarded the plane.
Ian Phillips, who is an on-board courier for mail distribution firm CMS Network, was due to fly on the doomed aircraft for work.
Mr Phillips, who transports and delivers sensitive documents by hand, received a call yesterday morning from work asking if he wanted to take the job which would have seen him fly to Cairo.
“I’ve been doing this job for four and a half years,” he told Newsweek. “It’s a case of who’s available, when. Yesterday, I was available. I got to work at 8.30am and said yes [to taking the job]. So, they sent me home to get my passport and pack my bag.
“Then, while I was driving [back to Peterborough] I got a call from my boss saying it was cancelled… If they had confirmed the booking I would have been on that flight. They were planning to fly me from London City to Paris yesterday lunchtime and then I would have caught the evening flight from Paris to Cairo.”
He also expressed his sympathy for those on-board the flight.
In a Facebook post the 48-year-old revealed his relief at having had the job cancelled at the last minute.
However in a cruel twist, French man Pascal Hess almost missed the flight after having lost his passport but ended up on board.
It is believed Mr Pascal was among the 15 French nationals who were on board the flight.
Friends told French newspaper La Depeche that he hadn’t slept for days before the flight as he was worried about his passport.
The photographer from Evreux in Normandy also appeared hesitant about the flight which would take him on a 10-day holiday to Egypt.
AUSSIE DUAL NATIONAL ON FLIGHT
Meanwhile the Australian government has confirmed an Australian-UK dual national was on the flight.
The man, believed to be Welsh-born geologist Richard Osman was the only UK citizen listed as a passenger of the flight.
The mining executive grew up in south Wales and recently welcomed the birth of his second child.
Julie Bishop has released a statement after reports an Australian dual-national was on Egypt Air Flight MS804 pic.twitter.com/t4O36cMLYT
— Ten News Melbourne (@tennewsmelb) May 19, 2016
Mr Osman, a geologist, was believed to be flying to work for a gold mining company in Egypt when the plane vanished, according to the South Wales Evening Post.
He also had a two-year-old daughter and worked for exploration and research companies which involved extensive international travel, Metro UK reports.
Tributes to Mr Osman started surfacing online after a tweet claiming to show the flight’s passenger list, including his name, was widely circulated on social media.
A former neighbour described Mr Osman as “a lovely young man,” adding: “This is a terrible tragedy for his poor family.”
The Foreign Office tweeted: “We are in contact with the family of a British national believed to have been on board”.
Deeply concerned by missing #EgyptAir. Can confirm British passport holder was on board & FCO is supporting the missing passenger’s family.
— Philip Hammond (@PHammondMP) May 19, 2016
Among the other passengers on crashed EgyptAir flight MS804 was a student training at a French military school who was heading to his family home in Chad to mourn the death of his mother.
The protocol officer for Chad’s embassy in Paris, Muhammed Allamine, said the man “had just lost his mother” and “was going to give condolences to his family.” Mr Allamine said the man, who wasn’t identified, was a student at France’s prestigious Saint-Cyr army academy.
Another passenger on the flight was an Egyptian man returning home after medical treatment in France, according to two devastated friends who turned up at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport.
“It breaks my heart,” said one friend, Madji Samaan.
Two Canadian citizens were also among the passengers. In a statement, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Dion said “based on the information currently available, we confirm that two Canadian citizens are among the passengers on this flight.”
Global Affairs Canada did not release the names or hometowns of the Canadian nationals, however EgyptAir confirmed that Marwa Hamdy was a Canadian passenger on board the flight.
On behalf of the Government and all Canadians, our thoughts are with the families &loved ones of the victims on board #EgyptAir flight MS804
— Stéphane Dion (@MinCanadaFA) May 19, 2016
Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry has also identified a Kuwaiti feared dead in the EgyptAir plane crash in the Mediterranean Sea.
A ministry statement delivered on Thursday afternoon by the state-run Kuwait News Agency named the missing passenger as Abdulmohsen al-Muteiri. It offered no other details about al-Muteiri.
The statement quoted Sami al-Hamad, an assistant foreign minister for consular affairs, as saying Kuwait had been in touch with Egyptian authorities over the crash.
News also emerged of other victims with broadcaster CNN revealing other passengers who were on board the flight.
Procter & Gamble director Ahmed Helal was on a personal trip the company revealed.
The company, who confirmed Mr Helal was a director of a Procter & Gamble production facility in Amiens, France, is devastated by the news.
Portuguese national Joao David e Silva was also named as among those on board.
The 62-year-old who worked for Portuguese construction company Mota-Engil was based in South Africa while his family lives in Lisbon.
The EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board crashed Thursday morning in the Mediterranean Sea off the Greek island of Crete.
Egyptian authorities had earlier confirmed that the wreckage of the missing plane had been found.
In a statement in English on Facebook, the airline said that Cairo’s foreign ministry “confirmed finding the wreckage” south of the Greek island of Karpathos.
However EgyptAir has since retracted the statement, tweeting the search is still underway for the plane.
The Egyptian Investigation Team in co-operation with the Greek counterpart are still searching for other remains of the missing plane.
— EGYPTAIR (@EGYPTAIR) May 19, 2016
EgyptAir said that family members of passengers and crew have been informed and investigation teams were still searching for remains of the plane. “We extend our deepest sympathies to those affected,” the airline said.
Egyptian Vice-President Ahmed Adel told CNN the rescue operation was “turning into a search and recovery”.
Egypt’s aviation minister Sherif Fathy said terrorism was more likely than technical failure to be the cause of the crash. “The possibility of having a terror attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical [problem],” he told reporters.
French President Francois Hollande confirmed the plane crashed and said terror could not be ruled out.
“The information we have gathered — ministers, members of government and, of course, the Egyptian authorities — confirm, sadly, that it has crashed. It is lost,” the French leader said following an emergency meeting on Thursday.
“No hypothesis is ruled out.”
Passengers arriving for the 3.45pm EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo faced heavy grey curtains drawn over the departure hall and journalists waiting outside. Most of those interviewed stayed stoic, saying it didn’t make sense to cancel their plane trip out of fear — even if many acknowledged being a little rattled.
- With AP
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